A Commentary on the Passing Scene by
Robert Paul Wolff
rwolff@afroam.umass.edu

Coming Soon:

The following books by Robert Paul Wolff are available on Amazon.com as e-books: KANT'S THEORY OF MENTAL ACTIVITY, THE AUTONOMY OF REASON, UNDERSTANDING MARX, UNDERSTANDING RAWLS, THE POVERTY OF LIBERALISM, A LIFE IN THE ACADEMY, MONEYBAGS MUST BE SO LUCKY, AN INTRODUCTION TO THE USE OF FORMAL METHODS IN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY.Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.

NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE: LECTURES ON KANT'S CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON. To view the lectures, go to YouTube and search for "Robert Paul Wolff Kant." There they will be.

NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE: LECTURES ON THE THOUGHT OF KARL MARX. To view the lectures, go to YouTube and search for Robert Paul Wolff Marx."

Total Pageviews

Archive of Wolff Materials

Saturday, September 3, 2016

HOLY NOUMENON, BATMAN!

YouTube says there have been 4,161 views of my first Kant lecture since it went up three days ago. In 1954, I bought a tiny 197 cc motorcycle in Oxford, England and rode it to Rome. I called it the ding nicht an sich because it was a phenomenal bike. I did not realize then that sixty-two years later I would become a rock star. Do you suppose anyone would like to see my killer impression of Leibniz?

That number is about 25 times as many as the total number of students who studied Kant with me over fifty years! Of course, each of them attended for an entire semester. Probably six people will watch the second lecture!

I'd bet that although the number of viewers will fall as the lectures progress, more people will watch them than watched ideological critique.

First of all, let me make my position clear. I came to your blog because the theme of ideological critique (Leiter linked to it) interested me. I probably would not have followed a link to Kant lectures.

However, the fall semester is about to begin throughout the northern hemisphere. Lots of people will study Kant in philosophy courses. They will be assigned the Critique or sections of the Critique as required reading.

Given that, it makes sense for them to watch YouTube lectures by a recognized Kant expert (yourself), someone who explains Kant clearly, with a sense of humor, with a few human interest stories to keep the whole thing from becoming too dry.

So while the final figures will less than 4000 (remember that for a complex subject like Kant, the same person may watch certain parts of the lectures more than once), it will be sizeable.

You were already something of a rock start back in the Seventies with In Defense of Anarchism, along with others like Justice William O. Douglas that inspired a new generation. A lot more interesting and timely than Kant, regardless of the immense significance of Kant for political philosophy, too.

Thank you Mr Wolff for putting together this web lecture series. As someone who has zero experience in philosophy, your lecture opened my eyes to a whole new world of knowledge out there. I'll definitely be back to watch your second lecture!

About Me

As I observed in one of my books, in politics I am an anarchist, in religion I am an atheist, and in economics I am a Marxist. I am also, rather more importantly, a husband, a father, a grandfather, and a violist.